As another round of peace talks within the Arusha process
began in the northern Tanzanian town on Tuesday, the
facilitators stressed that "serious issues"
would be debated. A spokesman for the Nyerere Foundation,
Brigadier General Hashim Mbita, said it was hoped "big
progress" would have been achieved by June, the
independent Hirondelle news agency reported. The next
two weeks of talks are designed to prepare the ground
for a peace agreement between Burundi's opposing sides,
but the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis
Group has warned that any accord signed by June would
have no validity and would have been prepared in haste.
Mbita told reporters this time round, the talks would
"go into serious issues of negotiations, rather
than pronouncing political statements and political
thinkings".

The Burundi government strongly believes the rebel CNDD-FDD
faction, which has not been invited to the talks, should
be present. It holds rebels of the Forces pour la defense
de la democratie (FDD) responsible for cross-border
attacks from Tanzania and says there can be no solution
unless they are included in discussions. According
to a Burundi government statement, the facilitator,
ex-Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, told President
Pierre Buyoya recently he was prepared to invite CNDD-FDD
"but not under the banner of CNDD", which
is represented by a faction led by Leonard Nyangoma.

CNDD-FDD ready to discuss "suspension of hostilities"
if invited

CNDD-FDD spokesman Jerome Ndiho told IRIN on Tuesday
his group had not received an official invitation to
the talks, but said it was favourable to taking part
if official confirmation came. There was no problem
with the banner, he added, as "CNDD-FDD is not
CNDD". "We are not opposed to negotiations,"
he said. "The armed struggle is intended to make
the army accept negotiations." However, there
was no question of a ceasefire, he stressed. "That
is too ambitious, but we are ready to discuss a suspension
of hostilities." Ndiho said it was "too late"
to talk about a peaceful solution, but a "negotiated
political solution" was possible. "The talks
must be serious," he added. "We will not
take part in a circus."

Army denies report of 72 deaths

Meanwhile, Burundi army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel
Mamert Sinarinzi said reports that 72 civilians had
been killed in renewed fighting near the Tanzanian
border over the weekend were false. He told IRIN on
Tuesday the number corresponded to the death toll -
including rebels - since January and he noted that
reports of the alleged fighting were vague. He also
dismissed reports that 17,000 people had been displaced.
Such allegations were intended to "derail the
peace process" by trying to convince the international
community that Burundi was not stable. He acknowledged
there had been one incident on the night of 6-7 May,
when rebels attacked a church in the Nyanza Lac area.
Colonel Sinarinzi added that most of the attacks were
perpetrated from Tanzanian territory and that attacks
by DRC-based rebels had decreased.

RWANDA: Tanzania to extradite genocide suspect to Rwanda,
not Belgium

Former Rwandan army officer Bernard Ntuyahaga will "in
all probability" be handed over to Rwanda to face
genocide charges after the Tanzanian authorities initiated
extradition proceedings on Monday, Tanzanian radio
reported. All that remained was confirmation of the
decision by the chief justice, according to a statement
by the director of public prosecutions, Jackson Mlei.
He did not indicate when that might occur.

Ntuyahaga is also wanted by Belgium to face murder charges
for allegedly ordering the shooting of 10 Belgian UN
peacekeepers as they guarded then Rwandan prime minister,
Agathe Uwilingiyimana, at the start of the 1994 genocide.
She was also murdered. Justice officials in Dar es
Salaam said on Monday that a Belgian extradition request
was rejected because Tanzanian law did not provide
for extradition to a country other than that in which
the crimes were committed, Hirondelle news agency reported.

A Belgian justice ministry spokesman said his country
regretted what he called a "political decision"
which "should not be justified on weak legal grounds".
Peter Gijsels told Hirondelle that genocide and crimes
against humanity were considered to be "universal"
and therefore "beyond the legal restrictions of
territoriality", but said Belgium would cooperate
with Rwanda if the extradition there proceeded.

The prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda dropped charges against Ntuyahaga in March
with a view to having him handed over for trial in
Belgium. He was rearrested by Tanzanian police shortly
after his release.

Prominent Rwandan politician faces charges

The prosecution case against former chairman of the
Mouvement Democratique Republicain (MDR), Bonaventure
Ubalijoro, is almost complete and he will soon face
embezzlement and subversion charges, the Rwanda News
Agency reported on Sunday, quoting Kigali Prosecutor
Emmanuel Rukangira.

The embezzlement charges relate to Ubalijoro's time
as general manager of the country's biggest oil company,
Petrorwanda, while the subversion charges allege that
he heads an underground Hutu extremist organisation
aimed at toppling the current government in Kigali,
according to judicial sources cited by RNA.

Returnees continue to arrive from DRC

UNHCR has registered 4,750 Rwandan returnees from the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Gisenyi since
21 March 1999. The returnees were quoted as saying
they were tired of living in hiding, that their relatives
informed them the situation Rwanda was safe, and because
there had been large sensitisation campaigns in Masisi
and Rutshuru by authorities and clergy of the DRC and
Rwanda. Local authorities are using the former vocational
training centre in Gisenyi as a temporary transit centre,
a UNHCR statement received by IRIN said. UNHCR has
been requested to rehabilitate Nkamira transit facility
which has larger capacity to accommodate returnees.

The NGO, Fondation Pinganayi Aide Humanitaire (FPAH),
said that there are still a number of Rwandan refugees
in the forests who are coming out "little by little.
"FPAH believes they want to return home because
they no longer receive any assistance," UNHCR
said. FPAH added that the local population in eastern
DRC is itself displaced and in no position to help.

A measles vaccination campaign in the Katana area of
South Kivu province between 26-29 April reached about
96 percent of the target population of 56,216 children,
the International Rescue Committee (IRC) told IRIN.
In a report, IRC said the campaign was conducted in
collaboration with local health authorities, WHO, UNICEF,
SCF-UK and MSF. Children also received polio vaccinations.
The campaign was organised as a result of a survey
carried out in February, which indicated that three
percent of Katana's children under the age of two had
died from measles during a recent outbreak. Another
vaccination campaign will be conducted in the adjacent
Kabare zone later in May, the report added.

Meanwhile, humanitarian sources told IRIN there were
some 83 cases of suspected meningitis in Katana during
the first three months of 1999, with 23 deaths recorded.

Decline in Kinshasa cholera cases

A cholera epidemic affecting Kinshasa since February
has started to diminish, a recent report from the UN
Disaster Management Team said. The report, received
by IRIN, said that 17 cholera cases were registered
in Kinshasa over the previous week, compared to 46
cases a week earlier. Meanwhile, the DRC government
has appealed for water-treatment chemicals for the
state-owned distribution company, Regideso, with a
view to improving the epidemiological situation in
the capital. The available stocks of chemicals will
cover Regideso's needs up to mid-July, the report added.

UGANDA: Reward offered for information on bomb blasts

Ugandan police have offered a US $2,000 reward to anybody
with information leading to the arrest and successful
prosecution of those responsible for a series of bomb
attacks that have rocked Kampala recently. A Ugandan
police source told IRIN the move was intended to speed
up the arrest of the culprits. "Of course, even
if it was one person killed, it would warrant the search,"
he said. "It is too much now, with 21 attacks."
At least 13 people have been killed by bomb blasts
since the beginning of the year.

Museveni views captured LRA weapons

President Yoweri Museveni, presently touring parts of
northern Uganda, has expressed surprise over the type
of weapons Sudan has given to the rebel Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA), a presidential press statement said. He
was viewing a huge amount of weaponry captured in the
last 16 months with the help of the local population,
news organisations reported. Museveni hailed the armed
forces "for having neutralised [LRA leader Joseph]
Kony and his criminal activities," the release
said.